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THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,   SAN  DJEfl* 

LA  JOLLA,  CALIFORNIA 


O  R  ATI  O  N 


DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE 


CITY    GOVERNMENT 


MUSIC    HALL,  JULY    5,   1875 


BY 

JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE, 


BOSTON : 
ROCKWELL    AND    CHURCHILL,    CITY   PRINTERS, 

No.    39    ARCH    STREET. 
1875. 


CITY    OF    BOSTON. 


IN  BOARD  OF  ALDERMEN,  July  6,  1875. 

Ordered,  That  the  thanks  of  the  City  Council  be  pre- 
sented to  Rev.  JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE  for  the  very  inter- 
esting and  instructive  Oration  delivered  by  him  before  the 
municipal  authorities  on  the  occasion  of  the  observance  of 
the  ninety-ninth  anniversary  of  the  Declaration  of  Ameri- 
can Independence ;  and  that  he  be  requested  to  furnish  a 
copy  thereof  for  publication. 

Passed  ;  sent  down  for  concurrence. 

JOHN  T.   CLARK, 

Chairman. 

IN  COMMON  COUNCIL,  July  8,  1875. 

Passed  in  concurrence. 

H.   J.  BOARDMAN, 

President. 

Approved  July  9,  1875. 

SAMUEL  C.    COBB, 

Mayor. 


ORATION. 


IT  is  an  old  custom,  as  you  know,  in  many  of  our 
Congregational  churches,  to  have  what  is  called  a 
preparatory  lecture,  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  pre- 
pare the  minds  of  those  who  are  to  commune,  so  that 
they  shall  partake  of  that  feast  of  brotherly  love  in 
the  right  spirit.  I  consider  my  little  speech  to-day, 
this  ninety-ninth  anniversary  of  the  Declaration  of 
American  Independence,  to  be  a  kind  of  preparatory 
lecture  for  the  great  feast  to  be  held  next  year  in 
Philadelphia.  On  the  4th  of  July,  1876,  the  thirty- 
seven  sister  States  of  this  Republic,  after  a  hundred 
years'  experience  of  free  institutions,  will  meet  to 
thank  God,  and  take  courage.  Certainly  it  is  one 
of  those  happy  coincidences  which  seem  something 
more  than  mere  accidents,  that  the  people  of  this 
great  Union,  so  long  divided,  and  now  so  happily  re- 
united, shall  inaugurate  the  new  century  of  freedom 
and  union,  henceforth  one  and  inseparable,  by  giving 
and  receiving  the  han4  of  fellowship,  in  the  CITY  OF 
BROTHERLY  LOVE.  Freedom  and  union  ;  for  with- 
out freedom,  what  is  union  worth,  and  without  union, 


6  ORATION. 

how  can  we  maintain  freedom?  All  that  I  can  ex- 
pect to  do  to-day  is  to  say  a  few  words  which  may 
help  a  little  to  prepare  our  minds  for  the  coming  of 
that  majestic  commemoration.  And,  in  order  to  do 
this,  I  shall  endeavor  to  illustrate,  as  far  as  the  time 
permits,  the  WORTH  OF  REPUBLICAN  INSTITUTIONS, 
as  shown  by  what  they  have  done  for  us  during  the 
last  one  hundred  years.  We  can  be  really  and  sin- 
cerely united  only  by  a  common  love.  What  the 
people  of  this  country  have  in  common  are  their  free 
institutions.  If  they  value  these,  they  will  be 
united;  if  they  undervalue  or  despise  them,  no 
hearty  union  is  possible.  Every  word,  therefore, 
which  can  be  truly  said  to  show  the  solid  worth  of 
our  Republican  form  of  Government  will  have  a 
direct  tendency  to  promote  union  and  brotherly  fel- 
lowship. But  such  words  must  be  those  of  truth 
and  soberness.  The  time  has  happily  passed  by 
when  a  Fourth  of  July  oration  was  expected  to  contain 
only  glittering  generalities,  idle  boasting,  and  empty 
declarations  concerning  the  superiority  of  America, 
its  people  and  institutions,  to  all  the  rest  of  the 
world.  The  time  has  happily  come  when,  though 
one  should  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of 
angels,  and  have  not  TRUTH,  he  will  become  as  a 
sounding  brass  and  as  a  tinkling  cymbal. 

And  yet,  though   I   should   like   to   give   all   the 
importance  I  can  to  my  work  to-day,  I  am  obliged  to 


JULY     5,     1875.  7 

admit  that  you,  Mr.  Mayor,  and  you,  gentlemen  of  the 
City  Government,  have  already  given  us  the  real  pre- 
paratory lecture  before  next  year's  centennial.     Your 
splendid  celebration  of  the  Battle  of  Bunker's  Hill, 
conspicuous    as   a  magnificent   pageant,   was  vastly 
more    remarkable    for    the   way    in   which    Boston 
offered  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  the  South,  and 
in  which  the  South  accepted  the  offer.     For  the  first 
time  during  a  hundred  years  the  jealousies,  rivalries 
and  ignorant  animosities  between  the  Northern  and 
Southern  people  disappeared  in  a  generous  outbreak 
of  mutual  good-will.     Without  disguising  any  of  her 
old    convictions,    Boston    said    to    these    Southern 
soldiers,  "Our  fight  is  over;    let  us  now  forget  the 
past,   and  be  friends."     And  the  Southern    soldiers 
accepted   this    courtesy   as   freely   as   it   was    nobly 
given.     The  echo  of  this  warm  brotherly  meeting  has 
gone  out  through  all  the  land,  and  has  struck  that 
note  of  reconciliation,  wrhich  we  trust  will  be  followed 
next   year    by   a   grand   choral    of  harmony.      Sad 
South  Carolina,  crushed  between  the  upper  and  the 
nether  millstones,  has  heard  the  sound  of  it,  and  is 
glad.     Far  Louisiana  rejoices  along  her  sugar-coast, 
and  gathers  hope.     Even  the  "  New  York  Nation," 
which  has  carried  its  honest  hatred  of  tawdry  sentimen- 
talism  so  far  as  almost  to  forget  the  real  place  senti- 
ment must  always  occupy  in  human  affairs,  has  been 
forced  to  admit  that  the  political  importance  of  this 


8  ORATION. 

.  outbreak  of  sentiment  can  hardly  be  over-estimated. 
It  seems  now  as  if  the  period  of  demagogues,  of 
military  interference  with  State  rights,  of  ignorance 
misled  by  low  cunning,  was  approaching  its  end;  and 
the  intelligence  and  virtue  of  the  South,  honestly 
accepting  the  new  situation,  may  be  able  to  save  that 
fair  region  from  its  plunderers.  One  man  among  us, 
gifted  with  that  prophetic  insight  which  is  born 
of  unselfish  sagacity,  foresaw  this,  and  advised  it  as 
the  only  possible  way  of  reconstruction.  Ten  years 
ago,  in  his  farewell  address  to  the  Legislature,  our 
great  war-governor,  John  Albion  Andrew,  the  pilot 
who  weathered  the  storm,  told  us  that  until  the 
South  was  governed  by  the  intelligence  of  the  South 
no  real  reconstruction  could  take  place.  Then  he 
gave  the  advice  which  we  have  at  last  accepted;  and 
asked  us,  having  done  our  past  duty  in  a  vigorous 
prosecution  of  war,  now  to  do  our  present  duty  in  a 
vigorous  prosecution  of  peace.  I  congratulate  you, 
Mr.  Mayor  and  gentlemen  of  the  City  Govern- 
ment, that  you  have  not  lost  this  great  opportunity, 
but  have  known  how  to  avail  yourselves  of  it,  and  to 
turn  this  noble  celebration  of  the  past  into  a  nobler 
preparation  for  the  future.  And  once  again  may  we 
not  say,  that  it  is  not  a  mere  coincidence,  but  rather 
a  happy  providence,  which  makes  this  old  city  of 
Boston,  the  place  "where  American  freedom  raised 
its  first  voice,"-  -the  Cradle  of  Liberty  a  hundred 


JULY    5,     1875.  9 

years  ago,  —  to  become  again  to-day  the  Cradle  of 
Reunion  and  of  National  Brotherhood? 

Merely  to  boast  of  free  institutions  is  always  fool- 
ish, but  to  bring  proofs  of  their  value  can  never  be 
unreasonable.  From  the  beginning  there  have  al- 
ways been  prophets  of  evil,  announcing  the  speedy 
downfall  of  this  Republic;  always  those  who  have 
preferred  the  glare  and  glitter  of  courts  and  aristoc- 
racies to  the  simple  happiness  of  a  democracy. 
Using  the  pithy  definition  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  I 
shall  therefore  proceed  to  show  the  advantages  we 
have  derived  in  this  country  by  maintaining,  during  a 
hundred  years,  a  government  "  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  and  for  the  people." 

In  this  definition,  the  second  clause  gives  the  chief 
characteristic  which  distinguishes  a  Republic.  Under 
a  monarchy  or  an  oligarchy  the  government  may  be 
"  of  the  people  "  and  "  for  the  people,"  but  it  is  not 
"  by  the  people."  When  the  people  of  France  voted 
in  Napoleonism  by  the  plebiscite,  Imperialism  was 
then  "  of  the  people,"  for  it  proceeded  from  them.  It 
might  also  have  been  "/or  the  people,"  if  administered 
wholly  for  the  public  good.  But  it  was  not  "  by  the 
people,"  for  it  was  a  centralized  government,  a 
bureaucracy,  every  little  commune  in  France  being 
governed  by  a  mayor  appointed  in  Paris.  A  good 
king,  like  Alfred,  may  govern  "/or  the  people,"  but 
his  government  was  not  "  of  the  people  "  nor  "  by  the 


10  OKATION. 

people."  Free  institutions  may  exist  under  an  aristo- 
cratic government,  like  that  of  England,  where  indi- 
vidual liberty  is  made  secure  by  Magna  Charta,  the 
writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  and  Trial  by  Jury,  and  where 
the  rights  of  free  speech,  and  liberty  of  worship,  and 
a  free  press  are  secured  to  all.  But  it  is  not  a  gov- 
ernment "by  the  people,"  but  by  a  comparatively 
small  body  of  rich  men.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  Ploutocracy. 
It  is  so  far  "  of  the  people  "  that  whenever  the  major- 
ity of  intelligent  Englishmen  wish  a  change,  they 
obtain  it,  as,  in  1828,  even  the  iron  will  of  Wellington 
gave  way  to  the  demand  for  Catholic  emancipation. 
But  government  "by  the  people,"  by  the  whole  people, 
in  local  districts,  by  their  representatives  in  larger 
communities,  was  the  great  experiment  begun  here 
a  hundred  years  ago,  which  has  been  continued  to 
the  present  time. 

The  main  question  to  be  settled  was  this :  "  Can 
the  people  of  any  country  govern  themselves?  "  And 
that  being  answered  in  the  affirmative,  the  second 
question  was,  "  Can  they  govern  themselves  better 
than  they  can  be  governed  by  others?  "  These  ques- 
tions have  always  been  answered  differently,  accord- 
ing as  men  have  had  more  or  less  faith  in  human 
nature.  The  vast  progress  made  in  this  country  in  a 
hundred  years,  in  population,  in  wealth,  in  general 
comfort,  in  general  information,  does  not,  by  itself, 
prove  the  advantage  of  popular  self-government.  The 


JULY    5,     1875.  11 

progress,  indeed,  has  been  immense.  In  1775  we 
were  thirteen  colonies.  We  now  are  thirty-seven 
States  and  eleven  territories.  We  then  had  a  popu- 
lation of  about  two  million  and  a  half,  of  which 
Massachusetts  contained  more  than  any  other  State, 
except  Virginia,  and  had  about  360,000  persons. 
The  United  States,  to-day,  contains  about  40  millions 
of  people,  and  fifteen  of  the  States  have  more  than  one 
million  of  inhabitants.  Then,  it  was  one  of  the  poor- 
est countries  in  the  world;  now,  its  resources  are 
characterized  by  an  English  statistical  work,  as  "  enor- 
mous." Then,  its  territory  was  a  little  strip  of  coun- 
try east  of  the  Alleghanies;  now,  its  area  contains 
three  millions  of  square  miles,  nearly  equal  to  the  area 
of  Europe;  and  we  have  nearly  as  many  miles  of  rail- 
road in  operation,  as  in  all  of  Europe.  We  send 
through  the  mails  750  millions  of  letters  every  year, 
or  nineteen  letters  to  each  inhabitant,  exceeded  only 
by  Great  Britain,  which  sends  979  millions  a  year,  or 
thirty  letters  to  each  inhabitant.  Our  mercantile 
marine,  though  only  half  that  of  Great  Britain,  is 
larger  than  that  of  any  other  nation.  We  imported, 
in  1874,  goods  to  the  value  of  567  millions  of  dollars, 
and  exported  goods  to  the  value  of  586  millions  of 
dollars.  In  the  same  year  we  exported  71  millions  of 
bushels  of  wheat,  of  which  60  millions  of  bushels  went 
to  Great  Britain.  But  this  71  millions  exported  was 
less  than  one-fourth  part  of  the  amount  raised  in  the 


12  ORATION. 

country.  According  to  the  census  tables  of  1870,  the 
annual  product  of  the  total  manufacturing  industries 
of  the  United  States  amounted  to  more  than  four 
thousand  millions  of  dollars.* 

Such  statistics  as  these  may  give  a  general  idea  of 
the  vast  progress  of  this  nation  during  the  last  hun- 
dred years.  The  invention  of  the  steam-engine, 
steamboat,  locomotive-engine  and  railroad,  and  the 
electric  telegraph,  have  made  it  possible  to  colonize 
the  great  West,  and  to  keep  this  vast  area  of  terri- 
tory united  under  one  government.  But  the  main 
superiority  of  this  country  over  Europe  is  that  it 
offers  such  comfort  and  advantages  to  the  poor.  This 
is  shown  by  the  immense  immigration  of  the  humbler 
classes  to  our  shores.  By  the  census  of  1870,  there 
were  living  in  the  United  States,  more  than  five  and 
a  half  millions  of  persons  born  in  foreign  countries; 
of  whom  more  than  a  million  and  a  half  came  from 
Germany,  nearly  two  millions  from  Ireland,  and  half 
a  million  from  England. 

The  majority  of  this  five  and  a  half  millions 
of  people  were  in  humble  circumstances.  And  what 
an  attraction  must  not  this  country  have  exerted, 
to  cause  such  numbers  to  give  up  the  ties  of 
home,  to  break  through  the  walls  of  habit  which 
surround  us  all  and  keep  us  in  our  places,  to 
collect  the  sums  necessary  to  pay  the  expenses 

*  United  States  census  for  1870.     Almanach  de  Gotha,  t-tc. 


JULY     5,     187:..  13 

of  the  journey  over  land  and  ocean !  The  cost  of 
this  emigration,  at  only  $100  each,  would  amount 
to  |550?000,000. 

We  do  not  mean  to  attribute  all  this  prosperity 
and  progress  to  Republican  institutions.  It  is  no 
doubt  also  due  to  the  abundance,  cheapness,  and  fer- 
tility of  the  soil,  the  demand  for  labor,  the  energy 
and  intelligence  of  the  race  by  which  it  was  first 
colonized,  and  the  universal  diffusion  of  education 
and  religious  convictions,  which  have  helped  to 
develop  the  forces  of  the  American  people.  But 
consider  what  a  difference  there  would  have  been,  if, 
instead  of  our  free  institutions,  and  our  federal  Re- 
public, this  continent  had  been  occupied,  as  Europe 
is,  by  twenty  different  empires  and  monarchies;  each 
having  its  standing  army,  its  custom-houses  along 
the  frontier,  its  costly  court,  its  soil  owned  by  a  few 
rich  noblemen;  its  restrictions  on  industry,  trade,  the 
press,  public  meetings ;  with  no  local  self-government, 
but  official  persons  appointed  by  the  court,  transmit- 
ting all  the  governing  power  from  above;  and  the 
citizen  a  cipher,  with  no  power  to  alter  or  improve 
his  own  condition  or  that  of  his  neighbors.  We  owe 
a  vast  debt  to  our  public  schools ;  but  another  im- 
mense education  has  been  given  to  this  nation  by  the 
town-meetings,  by  the  frequent  elections,  by  the  dis- 
cussion of  all  public  questions  by  the  people  them- 
selves, and  by  the  struggles  of  party.  Then,  in 


14  OKATJOX. 

European  countries,  a  thousand  restrictions,  the 
growth  of  centuries,  rest  like  heavy  weights  crush- 
ing down  the  energies  of  the  mind.  Here  there  is 
unlimited  competition;  the  career  open  to  all  talents; 
the  highest  prizes  offered  to  any  who  are  able  to 
grasp  them;  the  largest  part  of  the  products  of  in- 
dustry going  into  the  hands  of  those  who  earn  them. 
And  from  all  this  results  that  terrible  energy,  that 
ceaseless  activity  of  our  people,  which,  like  the  rush 
of  the  earth  on  its  axis,  we  do  not  perceive,  because 
we  all  share  it,  and  because  it  is  never  interrupted. 

No  doubt  every  work  of  man  has  its  good  and  its 
evil.  The  advantage  of  a  monarchy  with  aristocratic 
institutions  is,  that  it  gives  greater  advantages  to  the 
few;  the  advantages  of  a  Republic  with  free  institu- 
tions and  equal  laws  is,  that  it  gives  a  wider  educa- 
tion and  larger  comfort  to  the  many.  People  who 
have  plenty  of  money,  and  who  care  only  for  them- 
selves, do  well,  therefore,  to  go  and  live  in  Europe, 
and  enjoy  the  various  luxuries  they  can  there  find. 
But  those  who  can  taste  the  higher  satisfactions 
which  come  from  the  sight  of  human  progress;  from 
taking  part  in  the  conflict  against  ignorance,  error, 
wrong;  from  helping  on  great  reforms,  and  contribut- 
ing to  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  refinement,  and 
high  principle,  among  the  masses  of  men,  —  let  them 
come  to  America  and  help  us,  as  so  many  noble 
foreigners  have  done,  from  Lafayette  and  Steuben 


JULY     5,     1875.  15 

to  Follen  and  Schurz,  in  the  greatest  battle  ever 
waged  on  earth,  —  the  battle  of  light  with  darkness, 
of  good  with  evil.  For  America  is  the  field  of  this 
majestic  struggle,  and  here  is  to  be  decided  at  last 
the  destinies  of  the  human  race. 

If,  then,  it  be  asked,  what  has  been  accomplished  by 
our  Republican  institutions  during  this  hundred  years, 
I  would  reply,  that  they  have  demonstrated  four' 
facts,  viz.:  (1.)  That  there  can  be  universal  religion 
without  an  established  church.  (2.)  That  there  can 
be  universal  education  without  sectarian  schools. 
(3.)  That  there  can  be  universal  order  without  a 
standing  army.  (4.)  That  freedom  and  equal  rights 
make  the  most  stable  government. 

We  are  so  accustomed,  in  this  country,  to  religious 
institutions  which  are  supported  solely  by  the  people 
themselves,  that  we  sometimes  forget  that  we  are  the 
only  civilized  nation  which  does  not  have  an  estab- 
lished church,  or  churches,  supported  by  taxation.  It 
has  been,  and  is  now,  the  almost  universal  opinion, 
that  if  religion  is  not  maintained  by  law,  it  will  cease 
to  be  maintained  at  all.  All  the  nations  of  Europe 
are  taxed  to  support  public  worship,  and  the  result  of 
this  is,  that  many  of  them  have  come  to  confound 
Christianity  with  an  odious  form  of  government,  and 
so  have  lost  their  faith  in  religion  itself.  Both  the 
friends  and  foes  of  Christianity  suppose  that  it  must  be 
held  up  by  the  State,  or  that  it  will  fall.  This  scepticism 


16  ORATION. 

is  the  natural  consequence  of  the  union  of  Church 
and  State.  Even  within  my  own  memory,  every  man 
in  Massachusetts  was  obliged  to  pay  a  tax  to  support 
the  Congregational  church  ;  which  was  the  estab- 
lished church,  and  all  others  were  dissenters.  The 
law  had,  to  be  sure,  been  so  modified,  that  one  who  did 
not  wish  to  worship  in  the  parish  church  might  "  sign 
off"  (as  it  was  termed),  and  divert  his  tax  to  some 
other  church  which  he  liked  better.  But  pay  he 
must  to  one  or  to  another.  And  when  this  last  re- 
mains of  an  established  church  disappeared  in  Massa- 
chusetts, by  the  revision  of  the  Constitution  in  1820, 
many  good  and  wise  men  predicted  the  downfall  of 
Christianity.  I  myself  heard  a  speech,  made  by  so 
sagacious  a  person  as  Judge  Story,  in  which  he  de- 
clared that  in  consequence  of  allowing  the  people  of 
this  State  to  pay  or  not,  as  they  pleased,  for  the  sup- 
port of  public  worship,  in  his  opinion  there  would 
not  be  a  church  left  in  Massachusetts  in  twenty-five 
years  from  that  time. 

What,  then,  is  the  result  in  the  United  States  of  this 
strange  and  hazardous  experiment  of  leaving  relig- 
ious institutions  to  be  supported  or  neglected,  ac- 
cording to  the  will  of  the  people?  The  result  has 
been,  that  the  institutions  are  more  widely,  liberally 
and  universally  supported  in  the  United  States  than 
in  any  part  of  the  world.  There  are  in  this  country, 
by  the  census  of  1870,  72,000  religious  societies, 


JULY     5,     1875.  17 

63,000  church  edifices,  and  church  property  to  the 
value  of  $354,000,000  —  with  sitting  accommodations 
for  more  than  twenty-one  millions  of  persons.  There 
are  43,000  clergymen  in  the  United  States,  and  the 
amount  annually  raised  for  the  support  of  religious 
worship  must  be  from  twenty  to  thirty  millions  of 
dollars,  beside  the  large  sums  given  for  missions  and 
other  religious  purposes.  This  is  probably  a  greater 
amount  in  proportion  to  population  than  that  paid  for 
the  support  of  any  church  in  the  world,  except  the 
Church  of  England,  whose  income,  drawn  from  a 
population  of  twenty-two  millions,  is  supposed  to  be 
about  $40,000,000  a  year. 

We  have  proved,  therefore,  by  our  experiment  of 
a  hundred  years,  that  men  feel  the  need  of  relig- 
ious instruction  and  religious  worship  —  and  that 
they  gladly  give  their  money  for  this  object  without 
any  compulsion.  And  the  census  also  shows,  that, 
during  the  two  decades,  extending  from  1850  to  1860, 
and  from  1860  to  1870,  the  proportional  amounts 
contributed  to  these  objects  have  not  diminished,  but 
on  the  contrary  steadily  increased.  The  church  prop- 
erty in  1850  amounted  to  $3.78  for  every  inhabitant; 
in  1860,  it  was  $5.51;  and  in  1870,  it  was  $9.35. 
Judging  by  this  test  alone,  we  see  no  reason  for 
doubting  that  freedom  does  more  for  the  support  of 
religion  than  is  ever  done  by  law. 

We  have  also  demonstrated,  by  our  experiment  in 


18  ORATION. 

America,  that  free  institutions  can  give  a  wider 
education  to  the  people  than  has  yet  been  given  by  a 
monarchy  or  an  aristocracy.  The  people  of  this 
country  were  early  so  sagacious  as  to  see  that  the 
permanence  of  free  institutions  depends  on  the  intel- 
ligence of  the  people.  And  they  also  saw  that  this 
intelligence  could  only  be  obtained  by  a  public-school 
system  which  would  give  every  child  in  the  land  free 
elementary  instruction.  When  the  people  are  to 
govern,  the  people  must  be  educated.  A  government 
by  the  people  will  not  be  a  government  for  the 
people  unless  the  people  are  able  to  know  what  is 
really  good  for  them;  and  foreseeing  that  the  time 
would  come  when  women,  as  well  as  men,  would 
vote,  they  have  made  the  schools  free  .for  girls  as  well 
as  for  boys.  Public  free  schools  are,  indeed,  the 
chief  defence  of  a  free  people.  They  make  standing 
armies  unnecessary;  for  an  intelligent  people  will  al- 
ways be  able  to  defend  itself.  No  matter  how  large 
the  sum  spent  on  free  schools,  this  expenditure  is  the 
wisest  economy,  for  it  increases  the  wealth  and  tax- 
.able  property  of  the  whole  State  by  increasing  the 
producing  power  of  every  individual.  Educated  in- 
telligent labor,  as  we  all  know,  is  vastly  more  pro- 
ductive than  ignorant  labor,  and,  besides  this,  it  has 
been  abundantly  proved  that  education  diminishes 
crime,  and  in  this  way  is  also  a  great  economy.  I 
find,  for  instance,  a  paper  by  that  well-known  scholar 


JULY     »,     1875.  19 

and  wise  philanthropist,  Mr.  Charles  Loring  Brace, 
in  the  reports  of  last  }^ear's  Prison  Congress  at  St. 
Louis,  in  which  these  facts  are  given:  In  1871,  out 
of  50,000  prisoners  in  Xew  York  jails,  nearly  20,000 
could  not  read  or  write.  Of  the  illiterate  class  in  the 
city,  which  amounted  to  about  60,000,  one  in  every 
three  had  committed  a  crime  that  year,  for  which  he 
was  sent  to  prison;  while  of  those  who  could  read  and 
write,  only  one  in  twenty-seven  was  thus  guilty. 
Taking  the  whole  State  of  New  York,  it  appears  that 
one-third  of  the  crime  is  committed  by  the  illiterate, 
who  constitute  only  one-sixteenth  of  the  population. 
In  Massachusetts  the  proportion  of  criminals  in  jail 
Avho  cannot  read  or  write  is  usually  about  thirty  per 
cent,  of  the  wJiole  number.  In  1871  about  one  in 
every  twenty  of  those  who  could  not  read  or  write 
were  sentenced  for  crimes,  while  of 'those  who  were 
able  to  do  so,  only  one  in  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  committed  these  offences. 

Xow,  it  may  be  true  that  such  education  as  is  given 
in  our  common  schools  does  not  necessarily  make 
Christians,  and  it  is  not  meant  for  that  purpose.  The 
home  and  the  church  are  for  that  purpose.  But  it  is 
very  certain,  if  there  is  any  truth  in  facts  and  figures, 
that  this  common-school  education  does  have  a  strong 
tendency  to  prevent  persons  from  becoming  thieves, 
burglars,  pickpockets,  intemperate,  and  murderers. 
Schools  cultivate  habits  of  order,  regularity,  industry 


20  ORATION. 

and  self-control.  They  take  children  from  the  streets 
and  from  idleness.  They  open  their  minds  to 
thoughts  of  large  interests.  They  indirectly  en- 
courage what  is  good  and  right  in  all  their  lessons. 
To  denounce  them  because  they  are  secular,  and 
do  not  teach  religion,  is  therefore  pure  folly.  What 
are  Sunday  Schools  for,  but  to  teach  religion?  No 
sensible  man  pretends  that  when  you  have  taught 
children  to  read,  write  and  cipher,  you  have  given  to 
them  all  they  need  in  order  to  become  wise  and  good 
men  and  women.  But  you  have  given  them  "  The 
Key  of  Knowledge."  You  have  put  their  feet  in 
the  right  way.  You  have  reduced  their  chance  of 
becoming  criminals  from  thirty-three  in  a  hundred  to 
three  in  a  hundred.  And  you  have  made  it  oertain 
that  the  majority  of  the  voters  who  are  to  make  your 
laws,  and  decide  what  shall  be  done  with  your  prop- 
erty, cannot  become  the  blind  tools  of  selfish  dema- 
gogues. 

Mr.  Maurice  Block,  a  recent  French  writer  on 
Social  Science  ("L'Europe  Politique  et  Sociale"), 
tells  us  that  in  the  United  States  popular  instruction 
comes  nearest  io  its  ideal.  He  adds  that  it  is  the 
only  country  in  the  world  which  might  dispense  with 
"compulsory  education;"  but  adds  that  it  was  the  first 
country  which  declared  it  to  be  the  right  of  the 
community  to  insist  on  elementary  instruction, 


JULY    5,     1875.  21 

quoting  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  in   1668   and   of 
Connecticut  in  1650. 

The  United  States  has  led  the  way  in  giving 
universal  education  to  the  people,  and  making  this 
education  purely  secular;  leaving  religious  instruc- 
tion in  the  hands  of  the  churches,  where  it  belongs. 
Holland  followed  our  example,  in  1806,  by  separating 
the  school  completely  from  the  church;  and,  in  spite 
of  the  efforts  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  law  of  1857 
maintained  the  neutrality  of  primary  schools.  Sweden 
and  ^Norway  also  give  gratuitous  education  in  primary 
schools,  and  .make  it  compulsory  on  parents.  Switz- 
erland has  followed  this  example.  Even  Turkey 
has  adopted  free  elementary  schools,  and  compulsory 
education;  and  it  is  stated  that  ninety-five  children 
out  of  a  hundred  are  in  the  Turkish  schools.  All 
the  countries  of  Europe  recognize  the  right  of  gov- 
ernment to  insist  on  the  education  of  the  people. 
But  all,  with  perhaps  one  or  two  exceptions,  arc 
behind  this  country  in  the  sums  expended  for  educa- 
tion in  the  proportion  of  children  in  the  schools,  and 
in  the  statistics  of  illiteracy. 

We  have  been  able,  in  the  United  States,  to  make 
education  almost  universal  by  making  it  first  secular; 
and,  secondly,  free.  Free  schools,  supported  by  the 
whole  community,  and  carefully  abstaining  from  any 
interference  with  religious  opinion,  have  produced  this 
result.  In  Europe,  where  the  whole  power  of  an  ab- 


22  ORATION. 

solute  goverment  has  been  at  the  service  of  the  church 
to  enable  it  to  educate  the  people,  the  people  have  not 
been  educated.     The  object  of  the  church  has  always 
been,  and  very  properly  from  its  point  of  view,  not  to 
educate  the  intellect,  but  to  train  the  heart  in  religious 
sentiments.      The   church  did    not   desire   that  the 
people  should  learn  to  read  and  write,  but  that  they 
should  be  carefully   taught  the   catechism.     Conse- 
quently, in  1866,  the  French  minister  of  war  reported 
that  out  of  a  hundred  conscripts  only  thirty  could  read. 
By  tables   published   in   Turin,  in   1864,  by  the  ex- 
minister  of  public  instruction,  it  appeared  that  out  of 
a  thousand  males  in   Sardinia  and   Lombardy,  four 
hundred  and  sixty-one  did  not  know  their  letters.     In 
Tuscany,  six  hundred  and  forty-one  out  of  a  thousand 
were  equally  ignorant.     In  Naples  and  Sicily,  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-five  men  out  of  a  thousand,  and 
nine  hundred  and  thirty-eight  women  out  of  a  thou- 
sand, could  not  read  or  write.     Since  Italy  was  united, 
things  have  improved  ;  yet,  by  the  census  of  1864,  out 
of  twenty-one  millions  less  than  four  millions  could 
read   and  write.     In   Spain,  about   seventy-five   per 
cent,  of  the  people  are  equally  ignorant.     In  Spanish 
America,  seven-eighths  of  the  people  are  in  the  same 
condition.     Meantime,  in  the  whole  United  States,  in- 
cluding young   children,   the   recently   emancipated 
slaves,  the  poor  Southern  whites  and  foreigners,  only 
four  millions  and  a  half  out  of  thirty-eight  millions  of 


JULY    5,     1875.  23 

the  population  could  not  read  in  1870.  In  Massachu- 
setts, including  children  and  foreigners,  only  one  in 
twenty  is  unable  to  read;  and  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
seven  thousand  out  of  fourteen  hundred  thousand  are 
at  school.  In  the  whole  United  States  there  are  one 
hundred  and  forty-one  thousand  schools,  and  there 
are  more  than  seven  millions  of  pupils  in  attendance. 
The  money  expended  in  the  whole  United  States  for 
schools  in  the  year  1870  was  ninety-five  millions  of 
dollars,  or  about  $2.50  for  every  man,  woman  and 
child  in  the  Union.  Sixty-four  millions  of  this  was 
raised  by  taxation  for  the  public  schools. 

Compare  with  this  vast  sum  freely  given  for  educa- 
tion in  this  country,  the  trifling  amount  levied  by 
taxation  in  England,  which,  in  1867,  amounted  to  less 
than  two  million  dollars,  all  the  rest  of  the  education 
<5f  the  people  of  England  being  left  to  local  endow- 
ments and  private  charities.  Twenty  years  before 
that  time,  in  1847,  Macaulay,  in  one  of  his  most  power- 
ful speeches,  had  pointed  out  how  the  absence  of 
general  education  in  England  had  led  to  terrible  riots, 
the  direct  effect "  of  the  gross,  brutish  ignorance  of  the 
population,  left  brutes  in  the  midst  of  Christianity, 
savages  in  the  midst  of  civilization."  "  3STo  proposi- 
tion," he  adds,  "  can  be  more  strange  than  this,  that 
the  State  is  bound  to  punish  its  subjects  for  not  know- 
ing their  duty,  but  at  the  same  time  is  to  take  no  step 
to  let  them  know  what  their  duty  is." 


24  ORATION. 

If  Macaulay  justly  charges  the  ferocious,  riotous 
character  of  the  populace  of  England  to  the  absence 
of  universal  public  instruction,  we  may  say,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  our  own  wonderful  spectacle  on  the 
17th  of  June  may  be  partly  credited  to  the  influence 
of  our  public  schools.     Massachusetts,  with  fourteen 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  pays  every  year,  for 
education,  nearly  five  millions  of  dollars;  of  which  over 
three  millions  is  for  its  public  schools.     The  county  of 
Suffolk,  with  a  population,  in  1870,  of  270,000,  had 
50,000  children  at  school.    Is  there  any  other  city  in 
the  world  which  could  Lave  collected  a  crowd  such  as 
we  saw  here  on  that  day;  so  orderly,  so  quiet,  so  well- 
dressed,  where    you    could   scarcely   find   a    single 
drunken  or  noisy  man ;  a  crowd  amid  which  the  most 
delicate  lady  or  child  could  everywhere  go,  as  safely 
as  in  a  private  parlor?    I  think,  Mr.  Mayor,  and  citi- 
zens of  Boston,  we  have  a  right  to  take  some  pride  in 
that  remarkable  exhibition  of  the  results  of  a  53  stem  of 
universal  education,  began  by  our  fathers  in  1642,  and 
maintained  to  the  present  hour.     This  great  result  of 
Republican  institutions  is  not  likely  to  be  abandoned. 
It  began  with  the  Puritan  Fathers  of  Xew  England. 
The  w  Catholic  World,"  certainly  an   impartial  wit- 
ness when  it  praises   the  Puritans,  in   the   number 
for  April,  1870,  says  that  w  It  is  to  the  credit  of  the 
American  people,  at  least  the  Calvinistic  portion  of 
them,  that  they  have,  from  the  earliest  colonial  tin 


JULY     5,     1S75.  l2."> 

taken  a  deep  interest  in  the  education  of  the  young." 
and  that  "?  the  present  system  of  common  schools  at 
the  public  expense  "  originated  among  the  Congrega- 
tionalists,  and  in  Massachusetts.  AVilham  Peim, 
AVashington,  and  Jefferson,  all  exhorted  this  nation  to 
?*  educate  the  people."'  And  since  every  other  system 
has  proved  ineffectual,  and  since  our  system  of  free 
schools,  independent  of  every  sect,  and  teaching  the 
poorest  child  the  elements  of  knowledge,  has  proved 
so  successful,  the  people  of  this  country  will  continue 
to  maintain  it,  as  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  born 
out  of  Republican  principles  and  the  methods  of  a 
free  State. 

Another  great  result  of  this  hundred  years*  experi- 
ment of  govevmnent  by  the  people  and  for  the 
people  is  the  complete  demonstration  that  the 
authority  of  the  State  can  be  supported,  and  universal 
order  maintained,  without  a  standing  army. 

The  nations  of  Europe  groan  under  the  burden  of 
standing  armies.  Their  vast  military  organizations 
suck  the  very  life-blood  of  the  people.  The  colossal 
armies  of  Europe  take  from  productive  labor  in  time 
of  peace  2,700.000  men;  and  their  number  on  a  war 
footing  mounts  up  to  6,500,000.  The  expense  of 
maintaining  these  armies  is  £000.000,000  in  time  of 
peace,  —  and  the  time  taken  each  year  from  productive 
industry  amounts  to  eight  hundred  millions  of  days. 
More  than  a  hundred  \earsago  Montesquieu  wrote 


26  ORATION. 

these  words:  "A  new  disease  has  gone  through 
Europe,  and  seized  our  princes  with  the  desire  to  in- 
crease their  armies.  It  is  a  contagious  disease ;  for,  as 
soon  as  one  State  increases  its  troops,  the  others  sud- 
denly augment  theirs ;  so  that  nothing  is  gained  but 
the  common  ruin."  The  size  of  these  armies  is  now 
three  times  what  it  was  when  Montesquieu  wrote 
that  sentence,  —  so  that  now  the  expense  has  become 
truly  terrific.  But  this  very  expense  is  an  advantage, 
for  it  keeps  down  a  little  the  size  of  the  armies.  A 
standing  army,  fed  by  conscription,  is  a  temptation  to 
war.  If  France  had  not  possessed  such  an  army, 
she  never  would  have  attacked  Prussia.  If  England 
had  not  possessed  such  an  army,  she  never  would 
have  sent  her  eighty  thousand  soldiers  to  the  Crimea,  in 
a  senseless  attempt  to  keep  up  the  balance  of  power  in 
Europe,  —  an  attempt  which  cost  her  £78,000,000,  or 
nearly  $400,000,000,  and  has  disgusted  her  for  the 
time  with  interfering  any  more  in  the  politics  of  the 
continent. 

During  the  last  hundred  years  the  United  States 
has  been  engaged  in  several  wars;  the  war  of  1812 
with  England,  the  Florida  war,  the  war  with 
Mexico,  the  great  civil  war.  All  of  these  wars 
were  caused  by  the  slave  power.  All  were  occasioned 
by  slavery,  seeking  to  extend  itself;  for  slavery 
itself  was  a  condition  of  permanent  war.  It  was  the 
repetition  in  our  time  of  the  feudal  system,  in  which 


JULY     5,     1875.  27 

t 

a  small  body,  belonging  to  a  superior  race,  keeps 
down  a  much  larger  body  by  being  always  armed  and 
always  prepared  against  insurrection.  But  now  that 
slavery  has  perished,  we  shall  be  as  peaceful  as  we 
are  powerful.  We  reduced  our  army,  a  year  ago,  to 
twenty  thousand  regular  troops,  —  a  number  hardly 
large  enough  to  be  visible  when  scattered  along  our 
immense  frontier.  "We  thus  proclaim  to  the  world 
our  peaceful  purposes  toward  foreign  nations;  and, 
also  that  we  do  not  fear  any  danger  coming  from 
abroad.  And  as  regards  insurrection  at  home,  the 
people  themselves  can  be  depended  on  to  put  down 
any  such  attempt,  should  it  ever  come. 

We  do  not  need  an  army  to  maintain  domestic  order, 
or  to  support  law.  The  people  themselves  take  care 
of  that.  Fifty  years  ago  Dr.  Lieber,  travelling 
in  this  country,  was  struck  by  the  universal  respect 
for  law;  and  saw  an  evidence  of  it  even  in  the  sign- 
boards on  our  bridges,  "  Keep  to  the  right,  as  the 
law  directs."  A  government  by  the  people  makes  it 
the  personal  interest  of  every  man  in  the  community 
to  maintain  order.  The  laws  which  the  people  make 
themselves,  the  people  will  themselves  maintain.  Few 
things  in  this  country  have  more  surprised  European 
travellers  than  to  see  the  universal  security  and  quiet 
where  no  soldiers  are  to  be  noticed,  and  where  it  is  ex- 
tremely difficult  ever  to  find  a  policeman.  The 
explanation  is  always  at  hand.  In  the  States  of 


28  ORATION. 

i 

Europe  it  is  the  business  of  the  government  to 
execute  the  laws;  here  it  is  the  business  of  every 
citizen  to  see  that  they  are  enforced.  A  nation  without 
a  large  standing  army  is  weak  for  offensive  war;  and 
it  is  an  advantage  that  it  should  be  so.  But  it  is 
strong  for  defence;  in  its  prosperity,  in  the  comfort 
and  intelligence  of  the  people,  and  in  the  might  which 
slumbers  in  a  freeman's  arm.  It  may  be  said  that  we 
do  not  need  standing  armies  here  as  Europe  does, 
because  we  are  not  surrounded  by  hostile  States.  But 
that  is  also  owing  to  our  being  a  Federal  Republic. 
Massachusetts  does  not  need  a  standing  army  to  de- 
fend itself  from  an  attack  of  New  York;  because  New 
York  and  Massachusetts  have  a  common  interest,  and 
belong  to  the  same  great  union.  Let  the  states  of 
Europe  become  republics,  and  form  a  union  among 
themselves,  and  they  also  could  disband  their  armies, 
or  reduce  them  to  a  mere  police  force  like  ours.  But 
wars  will  never  cease  so  long  as  each  of  the  great 
nations  has  its  immense  army  and  fleet,  which  a  few 
men,  sitting  round  a  green  table,  can,  at  any  time, 
hurl  upon  their  neighbors. 

It  is  this  principle  also  which  has  made  our  govern- 
ment the  strongest  in  the  world,  —  the  least  liable  to 
convulsions,  overthrow  or.  change.  Fisher  Ames  put 
the  difference  between  a  republic  and  a  monarchy  in 
one  of  those  epigrams  which  contain  the  substance  of 
a  long  discussion.  "In  a  republic,"  said  he,  "you 


JULY    5,     1875.  29 

are  like  people  on  a  raft;  your  feet  are  always  wet, 
but  you  will  not  sink.  In  a  monarchy  you  are  like 
passengers  in  a  ship,  much  more  comfortable  while 
you  are  safe;  but  touch  a  rock,  and  you  go  to 
the  bottom."  We  have  been  on  our  raft  now  for 
a  hundred  years.  Our  feet  have  often  been  under 
water;  but  the  raft  floats  still.  How  many  of  the 
monarchies  of  Christendom  have  been  wrecked 
during  this  interval!  How  many  dynasties  have 
been  driven  from  their  homes!  What  repeated 
changes  have  taken  place  in  the  map  of  Europe! 
And  what  government  is  there  in  the  world,  beside 
our  own,  which  could  have  put  down  the  terrible 
rebellion  of  the  Slave  States;  could  have  organized 
an  enormous  army  and  a  powerful  navy  so  sud- 
denly; could  have  established  and  kept  up  an 
effective  blockade  along  a  thousand  miles  of  coast; 
could  have  originated  a  new  system  of  finance, 
and  borrowed  such  immense  sums  to  carry  on 
the  war,  and  sustain  its  credit?  And  this,  too, 
was  done  in  the  face  of  a  formidable  opposition 
in  the  free  States,  and  without  abridging  any  of  the 
guaranties  of  freedom.  Europe  saw  with  aston- 
ishment how,  in  the  midst  of  this  portentous  strug- 
gle, the  press  was  allowed  full  freedom;  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  government  were  allowed  to  meet  and 
say  almost  anything  they  pleased;  and  that  a  great 
presidential  election  took  place  in  which  the  ballot 


30  ORATION. 

was  left  free,  and  the  people  were  permitted  to  vote 
whether  this  government,  struggling  for  its  life, 
should  be  supported  or  not.  All  this  proved  that 
ours  is  the  strongest  government  in  the  world,  and 
that  it  is  so  strong  because  every  man  in  the  land 
considers  it  his  own,  and  has  a  personal  stake  in  its 
safety  and  power. 

"  But  our  feet  are  always  under  water,"  you  say, 
"  and  that  is  disagreeable."     Yes,  it  is  disagreeable ; 
but  perhaps  it  is  also  profitable.     On  a  raft  all  are 
sailors,  and  in  a  Republic  it  is  every  man's  business  to 
see  that  the  State  receives  no  detriment.    The  price  of 
liberty  is  not  only  perpetual  vigilance,  but  personal 
responsibility  in   all  the  citizens.     Thus  we  are  ed- 
ucated to  a  true  patriotism.     No  doubt  we  have  many 
battles  to  fight  still.     We  shall  have  a  long  battle 
with  the  trading  politicians,  with   the  caucus,  with 
rings,  with  the  lobby.    We  shall  have  to  fight  for  our 
school  system,  with  those  who  wish  to  make  it  sec- 
tarian.    We   shall   have   to   invent   and   apply   new 
methods  to  save  the  tax-payers  from  being  plundered 
by  rings  who  buy  votes  and  bribe  legislators.     Some 
of  these  inventions  have  already  been  made,  and  are 
being  applied.     The  State  of  Illinois  is  now  trying, 
with  success,  the  plan  of  minority  representation;  with 
such  success  as  to  have  reduced  the  bills  passed  by  its 
Legislature  from  eight  hundred  to  two  hundred  in  the 
first  session  under  the  new  elections.     The  State  of 


JULY     5,     1875.  31 

Wisconsin  has  embodied  in  its  Constitution  a  provision 
preventing1  its  Legislature  or  its  municipalities  from 
imposing  a  highei*  tax  than  a  certain  fixed  rate,  based 
on  the  assessment  of  five  years  before.  The  city  of 
!New  York  has  now  a  provision  in  its  charter,  by 
means  of  which  three  citizens  may  cause  any  office- 
holder to  be  examined  in  forty-eight  hours  before  a 
judge,  in  regard  to  any  misconduct  which  he  may 
be  intending  to  commit;  so  that  the  day  of  judg- 
ment for  such  civic  offenders  is  always  close  at  hand. 
Last  winter  a  Democratic  Legislature  in  Albany 
passed  three  acts  to  prevent  the  pilfering  of  public 
treasuries;  and  these  are  acts  which  almost  make 
every  public  officer  a  trustee. 

:?  Where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way."  If  we  re- 
solve to  correct  public  abuses,  as  the  old  abolitionists 
resolved  to  overthrow  slavery,  we  can  correct  them 
all.  What  a  lesson  of  faith  and  courage  is  there  not 
for  us  all  in  that  history !  When  Mr.  Garrison  and 
his  friends  determined  to  overthrow  slavery,  it  seemed 
the  most  sublimely  ridiculous  attempt  ever  made. 
On  the  side  of  slavery  was  united  every  social,  politi- 
cal, and  mercantile  interest.  It  had  for  its  defence 
both  of  the  great  parties,  the  commercial  and  manu- 
facturing interests,  the  Presidents,  Congress,  and  the 
U.  S.  Courts,  all  the  newspapers,  fashion  in  the  upper 
circle  of  society,  and  the  mob  below.  On  the  other 
side,  the  abolitionists  had  nothing  but  Truth  and  Jus- 


32  ORATION. 

tice.  Their  only  weapon  was  the  fact  that  slavery 
was  wrong.  With  that  weapon  they  conquered  in 
the  life  of  a  single  generation.  They  kept  saying, 
over  and  over  again,  "  Slavery  is  wrong;  "  and  before 
that  appeal  to  the  conscience  of  the  people  slavery 
tottered  and  fell.  That  one  cry  created  the  great  Re- 
publican party,  elected  Abraham  Lincoln,  drove  the 
South  into  secession,  by  which  they  attacked  both 
Union  and  Freedom  at  once,  and  created  the  deter- 
mination which  at  last  conquered  in  thac  awful 
struggle. 

And  shall  we,  who  have  lived  through  this  experi- 
ence, be  afraid  of  a  Lobby  or  a  Ring?  Shall  we 
tremble,  because  a  caucus  of  political  demagogues 
undertakes  to  dictate  what  we  must  do?  Their 
power  may  seem  enormous;  but  only  defy  it,  and  it 
crumbles  to  the  ground.  Let  good  men  and  true  men 
have  free  speech  and  a  free  press,  and  they  are 
more  than  a  match  for  all  the  combined  rascality  of 
the  country.  Those  who  make  politics  a  trade  are, 
no  doubt,  astonished  and  angry  when  the  people 
presume  to  select  men  for  office  outside  of  the 
party  programme.  But  they  will  have  to  bear  it. 
They  appear  to  suppose  that  offices  belong  to  the 
politicians,  and  that  we  are  taking  their  private  prop- 
erty if  we  prefer  to  send  to  "Washington  an  honest, 
sensible,  business  man,  outside  of  their  clique.  These 
partisans  seem  to  me  like  the  people  who  stand  in  a 


JULY     5,     1875.  33 

queue  waiting1  for  their  turn  to  get  tickets  to  a  popu- 
lar lecture  or  concert.  If  any  man  steps  in  before 
you  from  the  outside,  you  are  displeased,  and  you  re- 
quest him  to  go  to  the  foot  of  the  line  and  take  his 
turn.  So  the  politicians  stand  in  the  line  of  succes- 
sion, waiting  their  turn  to  be  nominated  by  the  cau- 
cus, and  are  much  disgusted  if  the  people  choose  to 
set  aside  their  little  arrangement,  and  take  a  better 
man  outside  of  the  line. 

All  we  need  in  order  to  accomplish  reforms,  and 
put  down  abuses  in  public  affairs  are  those  great  ele- 
mentary forces,  FAITH  and  WORK.  We  must  believe 
in  the  people,  believe  that  the  people  honestly  mean 
to  do  what  is  right,  that  when  they  see  the  truth  they 
will  follow  it.  And  then  we  must  be  willing  to  work 
to  make  them  see  it. 

It  is  not  a  new  thing  to  have  rings  which  plunder 
the  people,  to  enrich  a  few  leaders.  This  has  been 
the  case  under  every  monarchy  and  every  aristocracy. 
The  new  thing  is  to  have  them  successfully  opposed 
and  conquered,  as  in  the  case  of  Tweed  and  his  fel- 
low-robbers. Just  such  a  ring  as  that  surrounded 
Louis  XIY.  and  Napoleon  III. ;  only  instead  of  being 
plain  Tweeds,  Connollys  or  Sweeney s,  they  were 
marquises  and  counts,  Persignys  and  De  Mornys. 
But  who  ever  saw  these  titled  Tweeds  and  Sweeneys 
sent  to  the  penitentiary,  driven  into  exile,  or  com- 
pelled to  disgorge  their  plunder?  And  how  was  this 


34  ORATION. 

victory  over  the  New  York  Ring  accomplished? 
They  seemed  to  own  the  city.  They  were  sure  of  as 
many  votes  as  they  needed  at  every  election.  They 
could  pass  almost  any  law  at  Albany.  They  were 
so  strongly  entrenched,  with  a  great  mass  of  ignorant 
voters  behind  them,  and  the  ballot-boxes  in  their  own 
hands,  that  it  seemed  a  hopeless  thing  to  try  to  over- 
throw them.  What,  then,  overturned  their  power? 
Publicity,  —  that  is,  the  voice  of  the  people,  speaking 
through  a  free  press.  A  strange  terror,  a  panic  only 
known  to  the  plunderers  who  live  among  free  institu- 
tions, took  possession  of  them.  This  vague,  wonder- 
ful power,  which  we  call  public  opinion,  lifted  up  its 
voice,  and  then  this  edifice  of  fraud  fell  into  sudden 
ruin.  While  Mr.  Tweed  was  considering  which  for- 
eign mission  he  had  better  accept,  he  went  to  the 
penitentiary. 

It  is  true  that  the  first  attempt  at  reforming  the 
Civil  Service  has  failed.  We  have  not  succeeded,  as 
yet,  in  taking  the  public  offices  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  partisan  politicians.  Men  are  put  into  office,  not 
to  do  its  duties,  but  to  be  rewarded  for  political  ser- 
vices, by  getting  all  the  money  out  of  the  office  they 
can.  This  evil  principle,  that  to  the  victors  belong 
the  spoils,  and  that  the  spoils  are  all  the  offices  of 
the  country,  inaugurated  by  the  Democratic  party, 
under  Gen.  Jackson,  has  been  carried  to  its  climax 
by  the  Republican  party  of  to-day.  This  disgraceful 


1875.  35 


and  ominous  result  has  been  reached,  —  that  a 
department  of  the  government  has  been  found  to  be 
in  the  pay  of  the  whiskey  ring,  so  that  the  President 
and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  were  obliged  to  con- 
ceal from  their  own  officers  their  attempts  to  convict 
these  thieves.  Those  whose  business  it  was  to  col- 
lect the  revenue  were  assisting  the  robbers  in  plun- 
dering it. 


doubt  such  facts  show  that  our  feet  are  still 
under  water.  We  do  not  yet  give  offices  to  those 
who  will  best  do  'the  work.  But  we  are  attempting 
to  do  it;  and,  except  in  China,  this  course  has 
nowhere  been  regularly  pursued.  "Is  he  honest? 
is  he  capable?  "  —  this  test  for  appointing  to  office, 
which  was  practically  applied  by  all  our  Presidents 
down  to  the  time  of  Jackson,  will  yet  be  established 
as  law,  and  organized  into  a  working  rule. 

Republican  institutions  rest  on  faith  in  human 
nature.  Unless  this  faith  exists  they  cannot  be  sus- 
tained. We  must  believe  that  people  can  be  moved 
by  the  argument  that  it  is  right  to  do  this  ;  that  it  is 
wrong  to  do  that.  Assuming  that  people  prefer  to 
do  right,  unless  where  prejudice  or  interest  mislead 
them,  and  also  observing  that  prejudice,  and  self- 
interest  will  only  influence  some  section  or  class  of 
society,  in  regard  to  any  special  measure,  it  is  clear 
that  the  majority  of  people  will  always  be  in  favor  of 
what  is  right.  This  fact  is  the  basis  of  u 


36  OKATION. 

suffrage,  which,  giving  the  power  to  the  whole 
people,  protects  them  against  the  passions,  interests, 
and  prejudices  of  any  local  faction.  But,  in  order  to 
accomplish  this,  the  whole  people  must  be  intel- 
lectually educated,  so  as  to  be  able  to  understand 
what  is  right;  and  must  be  morally  trained,  so  as  to 
feel  it  their  duty  to  support  what  is  right.  This  is 
the  basis  for  a  universal  State  education,  mental  and 
moral.  And,  beside  this,  the  people  must  have  access 
to  sources  of  information  in  regard  to  men  and  meas- 
ures; and  hence  the  necessity  of  free  speech  and  a  free 
press.  And,  beside  all  this,  there  must  be  religion  to 
counteract  the  tendency  to  materialization  which  conies 
from  prosperity;  to  vitalize  the  higher  nature,  and  to 
lift  man  from  the  sphere  of  sense  into  that  of  soul. 
Without  this  influence,  progress  in  art,  science, 
literature,  and  social  life  would  lose  its  inspiration. 
Yet  religion  must  be  taught  independently,  —  in  the 
church,  not  in  the  school.  If  religion  is  taught  in  the 
schools,  religion,  being  so  much  more  important  than 
knowledge,  will  be  sure  to  make  the  education  of  the 
mind  subordinate  to  the  education  of  the  religious 
nature.  This  would  be  the  case,  not  only  with  the 
earnest  Catholic  teacher,  but  also  with  every  earnest 
Protestant  teacher.  The  colleges  and  academies  in 
this  country,  which  are  in  the  hands  of  Protestant 
sects,  have  often  had  for  their  primary  purpose  to 
buildup  their  sects;  and  for  their  secondary  object 


JULY     5,     1875.  37 

to  give  intellectual  instruction.  This  will  always  be 
the  result;  and  the  more  sincerely  religious  the 
teacher  is,  the  worse  will  the  school  be,  as  a  school. 
Thus,  in  Spain,  Austria  and  Italy,  where  the  educa- 
tion of  the  people  has  been  confided  for  centuries  to 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  almost  one  half  of  the 
people  have  never  learned  to  read  or  write.  This  was 
not  because  the  church  was  not  faithful  and  laborious, 
but  because  it  necessarily  subordinated  intellectual 
instruction  to  religious  culture.  It  believed,  and  still 
believes,  that  it  is  right  to  do  so.  The  principle  is 
distinctly  asserted  in  such  statements  as  this,  which  I 
take  from  the  "Catholic  World"  for  April,  1871: 
"We  do  not  prize  as  highly  as  some  of  our  country- 
men appear  to  do,  the  simple  ability  to  read,  write, 
and  cipher.  .  .  In  extending  education,  and  endeavor- 
ing to  train  all  to  be  leaders,  we  have  only  extended 
presumption,  pretension,  conceit,  indocility,  and 
brought  incapacity  to  the  surface.  We  believe  the 
peasantry,  in  the  old  Catholic  countries,  two  centuries 
ago,  were  better  educated,  though  for  the  most  part 
unable  to  read  or  write,  than  are  the  great  body  of 
the  American  people.  They  had  faith,  they  had 
morality,  they  had  a  sense  of  religion."  This  is  manly 
and  plain,  and  we  respect  the  honest  conviction  from 
which  it  proceeds,  though  we  dissent  absolutely  from 
the  principle.  We  do  not  believe  that  ignorance  is 
ever  the  mother  either  of  morality  or  of  true  devotion. 


38  OKATIOX. 

It  substitutes  superstition  for  devotion,  and  cere- 
monies for  virtue. 

It  is  much  to  the  credit  of  the  Puritans,  wherever 
they  were,  that  they  believed  in  knowledge,  and  es- 
tablished schools.  But  they  are  almost  t]?e  only 
exception  to  the  law  by  which  religious  sects  are  led 
to  make  religion  the  primary  thing  in  their  schools, 
and  intellectual  development  the  secondary  thing. 

By  means  of  universal  suffrage  we  no  doubt  intro- 
duce a  great  deal  of  ignorance  into  the  government. 
But  at  the  same  time  we  cause  all  to  feel  a  personal 
interest  in  the  government,  and  we  accomplish  the 
great  object  of  widening  the  basis  of  representation, 
so  as  to  neutralize  the  influence  of  local  interests, 
caste  prejudices,  and  private  aims.  In  the  same  fact, 
we  find  a  basis  for  woman  suffrage.  Not  because 
woman  is  the  same  in  character,  ability,  and  quality  as 
man,  —  but  because  she  is  different,  we  need  her  in- 
fluence in  public  life.  She  will  bring  in  new  elements, 
and  help  still  further  in  keeping  legislation  free  from 
special  tendencies.  She  will  see  many  things  which 
man  does  not,  as  lie  sees  many  things  which  she  does 
not.  She  will  make  many  mistakes,  as  7iet  makes 
many  mistakes,  —  but  hers  will  be  different  from  his, 
and  his  from  hers,  and  so  they  will  neutralize  each 
other.  Providentially,  we  have  prepared  for  this 
coming  change,  by  freely  admitting  girls  with  boys  to 
all  our  schools,  and  we  are  now  admitting  the  principle 


JULY     5,     1875.  39 

of  coeducation  in  many  of  our  colleges.  Life  attains 
its  true  and  best  equilibrium  not  by  monotony,  but 
by  the  union  of  antagonist  elements,  by  differentiation 
and  co-operation.  For  a  perfect  civilization  men  and 
women  must  be  companions  in  everything,  —  in  work 
and  play,  in  study,  in  all  occupations,  in  art  and  litera- 
ture, in  science  and  discovery.  I  do  not  think  our 
politics  will  be  what  they  ought,  till  women  are  legis- 
lators and  voters.  I  do  not  think  our  schools  and 
colleges  will  be  what  they  ought,  till  girls  are  edu- 
cated with  boys,  and  women  are  on  the  boards  of 
government  and  instruction  with  men.  I  do  not 
think  that  our  prisons,  hospitals,  charitable  institu- 
tions will  be  really  good,  till  women  are  in  the 
direction  together  with  men.  "When  all  careers  are 
open  to  all  talents,  society  will  be  properly  balanced 
by  the  equipoise  of  man's  force  and  woman's  sym- 
pathy, man's  logic  and  woman's  intuition. 

Mr.  James  Parton,  in  his  "  Life  of  Jefferson,"  tells 
us  that  in  1785  America  had  contributed  nothing  to 
the  intellectual  resources  of  man,  except  Franklin. 
?  We  had,"  says  he,  "  no  art,  little  science,  no  litera- 
ture; not  a  poem,  not  a  book,  not  a  picture,  not  a 

statue,  not  an  edifice."     The  books  of  Jonathan  Ed- 

t 

wards  and  the  pictures  of  Copley  may,  perhaps,  be  re- 
garded as  exceptions;  but,  in  the  main,  this  statement 
is  correct.  We  have  done  a  little  better  since.  We 
have  produced  no  Goethe,  no  Byron,  no  Rafaelle;  but 


40  ORATION. 

it  takes  more  than  a  hundred  years  to  produce  such 
flowers  as  these.  Everything  with  us  has  taken  a 
practical  direction.  Our  best  works  of  art  have  been 
our  vessels.  Our  great  poem  has  been  the  country, 
itself.  Our  great  edifice  has  been  the  national  char- 
acter. We  still  find  our  best  books  in  the  running 
brooks,  the  rolling  rivers,  the  majestic  mountains,  the 
roaring  cataracts,  the  mysterious  caverns,  the  bound- 
less prairies;  the  lakes,  rolling  like  the  ocean;  the 
forests,  sweeping  thousands  of  miles  toward  the 
setting  sun.  It  is  true  that  the  two  writers  whose 
works  have  had  the  widest  circulation  in  modern 
times  are  American ;  namely,  Noah  Webster  and  Har- 
riet Beecher  Stowe.  Twenty  years  ago  fifty  millions 
copies  of  the  books  of  Noah  Webster  had  been  sold, 
to  all  parts  of  the  world.  Of  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  so 
many  millions  of  copies  had  been  sold,  in  1870,  that 
Allibone  found  it  impossible  to  estimate  their  number. 
But,  after  all,  our  chief  contribution  to  the  history  of 
the  world  has  been  the  successful  result  of  these  free 
institutions.  We  have  shown  that  order  and  freedom 
may  be  united,  that  equal  rights  and  universal  respect 
for  law  can  be  associated.  Next  to  this  is  our  con- 
tribution of  MEN.  What  great  edifice,  though  it  were 
a  basilica  of  St.  Peter,  or  a  Strasburgh  minster,  is 
such  an  addition  to  the  wealth  of  mankind  as  the 
character  of  George  Washington,  or  of  Abraham 
Lincoln?  We  may  not  have  produced  many  original 


JULY     5,     1875.  41 

poems;  our  novels  may  be  often  mild  imitations  of 
European  models.  But  these  men  are  not  imitations. 
Untrained  in  any  school  of  hereditary  statesmanship, 
they  knew  how  to  guide  the  nation  through  dark- 
ness and  storm  with  comsummate  ability  and  without 
personal  ambition.  As  our  poet  says  of  Abraham 
Lincoln:  Mature,  in  making  him,  copied  no  previous 
model. 

"  For  him  her  old  world  mould  aside  she  threw, 

And,  choosing  sweet  clay  from  the  breast 

Of  the  unexhausted  West, 
With  stuff  untainted,  shaped  a  hero  new, 
Wise,  steadfast  in  the  strength  of  God,  and  true. 

"  We  knew  that  outward  grace  was  dust, 
And  could  not  choose  but  tnist 
In  that  sure-footed  mind's  unfaltering  skill, 
And  supple-tempered  will, 
That  bent,  like  perfect  steel,  to  spring  again,  and  thrust." 

In  him,  the  man  sent  by  God  to  be  our  leader, 
what  a  union  of  modesty  and  self-reliance,  of  caution 
and  courage,  of  patience  and  energy,  of  care  not  to 
go  too  fast,  and  the  determination  never  to  stand 
still !  Other  men  have  been  more  fluent  in  speech, 
but  his  words  had  the  eloquence  which  went  to 
the  heart  of  the  nation.  Others  were  better  read  in 
books ;  but  who  had  a  surer  knowledge  of  men  and 
things  than  he?  And  so,  as  the  years  recede,  he 
rises  higher  and  higher  above  all  his  contemporaries; 
as  is  the  case  with  all  true  greatness. 


42  ORATION. 

And  our  own  Massachusetts  has  also  given  to 
the  records  of  the  race  some  similar  examples  of 
great  powers  devoted  to  great  ends.  Such  men, 
within  our  memory,  were  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHAN- 
NING,  whom  Bunsen  ranks  with  the  prophets  of 
mankind  —  JOHN  QUTNCY  ADAMS,  standing  like  a 
majestic  monument,  beat  upon  with  stornts,  but 
never  flinching,  and  holding  on  his  way  without 
haste  or  rest  —  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  whose  majestic 
presence,  whose  all- comprehensive  intellect,  have 
given  us  another  measure  of  the  possible  reach  of 
human  thought  —  CHARLES  SUMNER,  with  a  soul 
devoted  to  everything  humane  and  noble,  so  simple 
in  his  manners,  so  free  from  guile,  so  pure  from 
every  taint  of  selfish  cunning,  that  he  seems  like  an 
old  knight-errant  dropped  into  our  time,  —  one  whose 
chosen  work  it  was  to  pluck  the  prey  from  the  jaws 
of  the  wicked,  and  to  help  the  oppressed  to  go  free. 
What  a  lesson  to  time-servers  and  mere  partisans 

f 

was  that  great  outbreak  of  grateful  love  which 
accompanied  this  honest  man  to  his  grave!  What 
a  rebuke  to  those  self-seekers  who  make  political 
life  a  scramble  for  office  and  gain! 

"  Vipers,  who  creep,  where  man  disdains  to  climb ; 
And,  having  wound  their  noisome  fetters  round 
The  pillars  of  our  capitol  of  state, 
Hang,  hissing,  at  the  nobler  man  below.'' 


JULY     5,     1875.  40 

Let  young  men  mark  well  this  lesson.  They  may 
listen  to  many  cynical  doubts  as  to  the  possibility  of 
honesty  in  public  life;  they  may  often  find  it  the 
fashion  to  regard  politics  as  unworthy  the  attention 
of  refined  persons;  but,  while  selfish  and  partisan 
politics  are,  indeed,  unworthy  their  pursuit,  what 
better  work  can  they  find  than  that  which  con- 
cerns the  life,  the  happiness,  the  peace,  the  prosperity 
of  the  nation?  "What  better  study  than  the  complex 
methods  by  which  justice  is  organized  into  law,  and 
freedom  takes  form  in  stable  institutions?  "What 
higher  chivalry  is  there  to-day,  than  that  which  de- 
votes itself  to  exposing  the  plunderers  of  the  State; 
to  battling  against  the  mere  partisans  who  seek  only 
the  spoils  of  victory;  ajid  touching  with  the  Ithuriel 
spear  of  truth,  the  lies  with  which  demagogues  seek 
to  deceive  the  people?  This  is  a  work  as  high  as 
man  can  do,  and  will  always  win  the  reward  of 
human  love,  reverence  and  honor. 

And  then  we  have  had  graceful  orators,  like 
EDWARD  EVERETT,  whose  silver  arrow  always  sped 
straight  on  its  course,  to  the  understanding  and  taste 
of  his  hearers;  and  another  kind  of  men  like  JOSIAH 
QUESTCY,  — the  last,  or  almost  the  last,  of  that  race  of 
Yankee  Romans,  who  joined  to  the  sagacity  running 
in  their  !N"ew  England  blood,  a  strain  of  the  old  heroic 
loyalty  to  all  that  is  most  honorable  and  most  true. 

But  the  list  increases  while  I  attempt  to  bring  it  to 


44:  ORATION. 

a  close.  Our  dear  old  State  has  never  been  without 
its  heroes,  its  saints,  its  martyrs;  its  old  men,  whose 
long  experience  attains  something  like  a  strain  of 
prophecy ;  its  young  men,  modest  and  manly,  "  with 
morn  on  their  bright  shields  of  expectation !  " 

But  one  name  more  I  must  not  omit  to  mention, — 
one  name  dear  to  all  our  hearts,  too  soon  taken  away 
from  the  great  work  he  seemed  made  to  accomplish. 

The  greatness  of  our  war-governor,  JOHN  A.  AN- 
DREW, was  not  in  his  having  any  one  extraordinary 
talent,  but  in  the  large,  wide,  well-balanced  character 
of  his  mind.  Because  he  clearly  saw  both  sides  of 
each  question,  he  was  always  able  to  decide  promptly. 
His  conscientious  devotion  to  justice  and  truth  pre- 
vented him  from  being  blinded  by  vanity  or  self- 
interest;  the  practical  tendency  of  his  mind  kept  him 
from  being  led  away  by  any  mere  theory.  He  was  a 
thorough  Democrat,  but  he  loved  culture  and  culti- 
vated people.  He  was  an  honest  philanthropist,  yet 
his  was  no  rose-water  philanthropy.  He  would  not 
sacrifice  justice  to  love.  He  was  a  religious  man, 
with  a  most  living  faith  in  God,  but  as  free  from  the 
cant  of  religion  as  any  man  I  ever  knew. 

"Why  is  it,  let  me  finally  ask,  that  to-day,  while  all 
Europe  is  in  such  unstable  equilibrium,  here  all  pol- 
itics are  so  stable?  "Why  is  it  that  while  there,  re- 
publics are  changed  to  monarchies,  monarchies  to 
empires,  empires  to  republics  again,  and  revolutions 


JULY    5,     1875.  45 

are  the  normal  condition  of  things;  here,  in  this  land, 
a, Republic  has  existed  nearly  a  hundred  years; 
and,  having  overcome  our  late  rebellion,  is  more 
firmly  established  to-day  than  ever?  It  is  be- 
cause we  have  united  freedom  and  order,  law  and 
liberty.  It  is  because  we  have  not  been  afraid  of  the 
fullest  utterance  of  all  truth,  on  the  one  hand;  and 
have  not  been  ashamed  of  the  worship  and  service  of 
God  on  the  other.  Religion,  in  this  country,  walks 
hand  in  hand  with  freedom,  with  education,  with  sci- 
ence. A  free  press,  in  this  country,  is  the  main  sup- 
port of  government  and  law. 

Long  may  it  -be  so!  Here  in  Massachusetts  was 
first  proved  the  possibility  of  a  free  church,  in  a  free 
State,  with  free  schools  and  a  free  press.  That  is 
our  chief  gift  to  the  cause  of  human  progress;  and 
it  is  a  great  one,  and  well  deserves  the  praise  of  our 
England  poet :  — 

"  Rough,  bleak  and  hard,  our  little  State 
Is  scant  of  soil,  of  limits  strait ; 
Her  yellow  sands  are  sands  alone, 
Her  only  mines  are  ice  and  stone. 

"  Yet  on  her  rocks,  and  on  her  sands, 
And  wintry  hills,  her  school-house  stands ; 
And  what  her  rugged  soil  denies, 
The  harvest  of  the  mind  supplies. 

"  For  well  she  keeps  her  ancient  stock, 
The  stubborn  strength  of  Plymouth  Rock, 


1B836 


46  ORATION. 

And  still  maintains,  with  milder  laws, 
And  clearer  light,  tlie  Good  Old  Cause  ! 

11  Nor  heeds  the  sceptic's  puny  hands, 
While  near  her  school  the  church-spire  stands, 
Nor  fears  the  blinded  bigot's  rule, 
While  near  her  church-spire  stands  the  school !  " 


